SESSION 9 & 11 - ALDP – REFLECTIVE ASSIGNEMENT 2 PEOPLE LEADERSHIP

Session 9 & 11 - Leadership & Emotional Intelligence – Part 1 & 2

Q1. Why is Emotional Intelligence an important skill for the new- age
leadership?

Ans. Leadership skills are recognizable and people who take initiatives, have a
strong vision and who can strategize plans and accomplish goal in order to
achieve their vision. They display these skills when working in a team and their
team in turn are appreciative of those skills.

Emotional intelligence is an important element of a leadership skill. It is the

ability to recognize emotions of oneself and others and also helps in
understanding the effect and to use that knowledge to update and guide our
skills and thoughts. Leaders who are emotionally intelligent promotes the safe
environment for its employees, where, they feel comfortable in suggesting
their ideas and voice their opinions. This kind of environment not only woven
the organizational culture but also encouraged collaborative working. In order
to drive the organization forward, an emotionally intelligent leader can use the
emotions. It should be very well noted that If new-age leaders are going to
flourish in a future of disruptions, they must encourage and reward positive
energies in others.

Leaders have the responsibility of bringing necessary changes in the

organization and they can use the emotions to drive the organization forward.
If the leader is aware of the possible reactions to these changes, he can very
well plan and prepare the ways to make it successful. The emotional intelligent
leaders are able to build the plans without worrying about the impact on the
egos and don’t take the things personally. The key traits of that most
successful leaders possess are listed below:

● Leaders work to inspire and motivate the people around them.

● They build trusts which stems from the integrity and honesty that’s been
built up.
● They act with integrity and honesty with every team member.
● They always build strong relationships which communicates that each
member of his team is valued, and their concerns are important and will be
addressed.
● They develop and support their teammates and always celebrate success of
their employees and encourage them to learn more and develop their skills.

Emotional Intelligence can determine the business success and its absence
can lead to the basic failures as well. There is a considerable difference
between IQ and EQ i.e. we are born with the IQ but EQ is something which
can be built and worked upon. The benefits of the same are listed below:
● Improved Company Culture – Leadership is always building relationships
and successful leadership is flourished with the group culture of trust and
openness. Leaders with high EQ encourages the open communication and
strong relationships, which helps in achieving the objectives that the
company would like us to achieve.
● Team Engagement – It is very important to understand the emotions of the
team as team with negative attachments with their team leaders fail to
work together towards the success of an organization. Emotional
Intelligences gives the voice and dynamics to the team.
● High Performance Results – Trusted employees who do not have the
negative emotions towards their superiors performs better and more
productivity which ultimately improves the bottom line.
To summarize with, whatever model the workplace follows, emotional
intelligence can build better leaders and also prevent the employee turnover.
When workers feel comfortable respected, valued and understood the
environment that have been created, would not like to leave their job.

Q2. What specific steps/changes would you make in your personal and
professional lives to develop your Emotional Quotient? Provide a reflection of
the same.

Ans. Emotional Intelligence competencies are the ways through which one can
develop self in order to become competent along with the understanding of
the strengths and weaknesses. These competencies form the basis of being
emotionally intelligent so that one can rise in all the aspects of life. It is broken
into four competencies – Self-awareness, self-management, relationship
management and social awareness and in order to develop the emotional
quotient, we as a leader must work on the above four competencies, which are
explained below:

● Self-awareness: Successful leaders know where their natural inclination lie

and how to use this knowledge to boost these inclinations. Basically, these
inclinations are fueled by our experiences, cultures and backgrounds but we
as an individual are responsible for who we continually become. A leader
with self-awareness can always influence the potential situation of the
group and to be an effective leader it is very important to study and learn
the leadership tools like we can ask for the feedback, listen it and assess the
 personality and style of working through valid tools. This involves
identifying the strengths and weakness and when one understand the same
then he can learn and welcome the feedback whether positive or negative.
Through accurate self-awareness, one can cultivate the strengths.
● Self- Management – Self-management is how to control and manage
oneself and the emotions, abilities and inner resources. It also includes
taking responsibility for your own actions, ensuring that the actions match
with the personal values and the ability to manage the instincts. A good
leader who have good self - control remain calm even when stressed and
can think and make good decisions under pressure and without clouding
the emotions around the judgement. It is very important to become
flexible to the new organizational challenges and look out for the new
opportunities. Adaptability is one of the most important component of self-
management and Emotional
Intelligence.
● Relationship Management – This consists of identifying, managing and
analyzing the relationships with the people inside and outside of team along
with their development through coaching and proper feedback. It also
incorporates the ability to lead and communicate others. The effect of this
approach can be powerful and in future it is better to get the jobs done by a
team work instead of doing it alone. Emotional intelligence is all about the
interpersonal communication skills and is the ability to get the best out of
the others, ability to inspire and influence others and ability to
communicate and build bond with them. It also helps the team to grow,
develop and resolve conflicts.
● Social Awareness – It is the ability to recognize other emotions and the
dynamics within the organization. An outstanding leader continuously
monitors the emotional climate around, and they are very good when
interacting with people and expressing their own feelings & getting other
people to feel good and relaxed during the difficult situations as well. The
leaders with social awareness strive to understand the feelings and
perspectives of the colleagues which enables them to collaborate and
communicate effectively with their peers.